Michael's Insight

Survey indicates cable is provider of choice for 3-D video

Survey says consumers want 3D at home [EngadgetHD]

 A recent survey of consumers indicates a strong majority want 3-D content from their cable provider. Quixel Research conducted an online survey of 1,000 HDTV owners to determine their opinions about three dimensional high definition video and their preferred 3-D video format, and the research indicates a substantial number of viewers are very familiar with 3-D technology. Seventy-eight percent of the respondents have had a 3-D video experience, most likely at a movie theatre.

Of the entire sample, most consumers are interested in having the ability to watch 3-D television in their home. Of those surveyed that had recently watched a 3-D movie, that interest was even higher. And when asked whether they preferred to get that 3-D experience from a Blu-ray disc or their cable provider, three quarters of respondents indicated that they preferred their cable provider for 3-D video content. Blu-ray came in second among those surveyed.

Most consumers surveyed by Quixel believe that 3-D HDTV technology will become available within the next 12 months, 

Motorola's set-top business going on the auction block

Motorola set-top box unit lures PE bids [Reuters]

 As a dominant player in the television set-top business, millions of Americans watch their television shows via Motorola's equipment. That business looks to be going on the auction block over the next few months. Reuters reports that several firms have expressed an interest in purchasing Motorola's set-top division. Those reportedly include several private equity firms along with equipment manufacturer Arris.

One source quoted in this article as calling the set-top business "yesterday's technology," but that statement doesn't capture the possibility of the business becoming the technology of tomorrow. Recently the FCC announced its interest in set-top manufacturers creating a cross-platform set-top capable of broadband access as part of the Commission's national broadband initiative. With their widespread deployment, the FCC believes that set-tops could be a vehicle for expanding broadband adoption.

It's unclear who will end up with the winning bid, though this article has a list of the likely bidders. Regardless of the outcome, its looking possible that many cable customers will be seeing a new company logo on their digital set-tops in the near future.

Facebook looks at its most popular status update trends

Facebook Memology: Top Status Trends of 2009 [Facebook Blog]

 The official blog of Facebook has an interesting post about the top ideas - or memes - that have appeared on the millions of Facebook users' status lines during 2009. Taken as a whole, Facebook has determined the top themes in the billions of Facebook status updates that have appeared in the past year. The list is an interesting peek into the way that we portray ourselves via social media and the top activities of Facebook users.

Top on the list were a list of Facebook applications, mostly games, that have proved their popularity in 2009. Two of the most popular were farming simulators called Farm Town and Farmville, each with millions of active users on Facebook. There's an interesting graph in the blog post that illustrates the popularity of online agriculture among Facebookers, leading Facebook to deem 2009 "the year of the farm in status updates."

Other popular trends included status updates about the H1N1 flu, celebrity deaths - including Michael Jackson, family, movies and sports. The most interesting new trend of 2009 in Facebook status updates? With the average Facebook age growing older since 2008, there has been a noticeable increase in status updates about yards and yard work over the past year. 

Wall Street Journal reports Apple contemplating online television service

Disney and CBS interested in Apple's subscription-based iTunes TV idea? [EngadgetHD]

 Is Apple working behind the scenes on deals for Disney and CBS content for a subscription online video service? According to The Wall Street Journal, both content producers are considering the idea of providing their video content online via a  subscription-based product from Apple. Based on reports from anonymous sources, Apple is working to build a $30 per month subscription video service. Disney and CBS are considering a deal with Apple that might include ABC, ABC Family, Disney Channel, and CBS and CW shows. 

But aren't these many of the same shows that are already available in an ad-supported format on Hulu and TV.com? And since when is $30 per month a good deal for viewers with a limited lineup of just a few video options?  It will likely be positioned for those who don't mind limiting the number of networks they receive in order to pay less.  Apple seems interested in parlaying its success in online music with iTunes into online video.  It remains to be seen if they will be able to compete effectively with the ease, variety and cost of one of the best deals in America -- Cable TV. 

Engadget indicates that Apple is planning to unveil the service sometime in the next year.

Tips for safe online shopping for the holidays

Take Care While Christmas Shopping Online [Sherman's Security Blog]

 If you haven't yet completed your holiday shopping list, it's getting close to the eleventh hour. Most online retailers still are offering delivery options that will still arrive on time, but time to take advantage of those offers is getting short. Online shopping can be a good option for getting those last minute gifts, but there are potential pitfalls to avoid. Sherman, Insight's head of security, has offered up several good tips on his blog for completing gift purchases online while protecting your financial information.

Sherman's tips include shopping with well-known online retailers, avoiding the Internet's back alley sales. Shopping at obscure online retailers increases the risk that a site isn't actually a retailer but a front for stealing credit card details. By the way, using a credit card, rather than other payment options, increases your legal protections against loss should a site not turn out to be legitimate, according to Sherman.

Sherman also recommends shopping at U.S. based online retailers to avoid losing the protections afforded by domestic customer protection laws, shopping each site with unique passwords, and keeping an eye on the security protections afforded by each retailer's web site. Make sure that the payment information exchanged between you and online retail sites is transferred through an encrypted connection.

Sherman's blog is a great source for tips on keeping your online experience a safe and enjoyable one. Best of luck with your last-minute holiday gift shopping.

Manufacturers planning 3-D HDTV sets; Finnish cable company testing 3-D programming

Sony preps 3-D TVs; MSO delivers 3-D content [CED Magazine]

 Communications, Engineering and Design Magazine has highlighted the march toward three dimensional, high definition television in a recent article, with Sony announcing plans for 3-D technology in a new line of televisions and a Finnish cable operator testing 3-D technology on its channels. CED Magazine indicates that Sony has licensed the RealD standard for 3-D HDTV for its Bravia televisions. RealD is a proprietary technology that uses glasses to create a 3-D effect on LCD HDTVs. Sony and other manufacturers are expected to debut 3-D HDTV technology at the Consumer Electronics Show in January.

CED also reports that cable operator Welho in Finland is testing another proprietary 3-D technology to put 3-D video content on one of its cable systems in that country. The technology that Welho is testing does not use glasses to create the 3-D effect for viewers, and it plans to debut 3-D video across its footprint sometime next year. This article does not indicate whether Welho's 3-D content will require a special television for viewing.

Next year promises to have several exciting developments that may bring 3-D content into the mainstream as a new option for home entertainment.

Hackers attack Twitter, redirect site's DNS

Twitter Disrupted By Web Attack [NYT Bits Blog]

 Early this morning hackers mounted a successful attack against the micro-blogging site Twitter, disabling its web site for a period of time. The hackers managed to hijack the site's domain name servers (DNS), according to a report from a Twitter co-founder. Once the hackers had control of the of the Twitter DNS, they were able to redirect web traffic to the site to a web page that declared Twitter had been hacked by a group called the "Iranian Cyber Army." Users attempting to use Twitter's web interface could only access the hijacked page.

Twitter has been the subject of several cyber attacks in 2009, ranging from several celebrities Twitter accounts being taken over by hackers posting malicious tweets to a denial of service attack aimed at a blogger over his support of the Republic of Georgia in a conflict with Russia. 

Twitter has now reassumed control of their DNS and the site appears to have recovered from the most recent attack.

FCC issues a warning against AT&T network protest

FCC Opposes Fake Steve Jobs' AT&T DDoS [Broadband Reports]

 It could be a tempest in a tea pot or it could be a legitimate threat to public safety, but the FCC isn't taking any chances in denouncing a move to create havoc on AT&T's wireless network.

The threat began when journalist Dan Lyons proposed through his online alter-ego "Fake Steve Jobs" that AT&T mobile users should protest the carrier's spotty wireless data coverage with a distributed denial of service attack on the network. Lyons encouraged AT&T customers to begin consuming as much data usage at a specific time of the day today in an effort to bring the issue to the company's attention. A large amount of simultaneous data usage has the potential of slowing or bringing network traffic to a halt. 

The FCC has taken note of Lyons' call to action, and has concerns that the concerted action has the potential blocking legitimate data traffic and phone calls on AT&T's network. ABC News reports that the FCC has issued a statement saying, "To purposely try to disrupt or negatively impact a network with ill-intent is irresponsible and presents a significant public safety concern."  

Regardless of how poor a carrier's network performs, there are legitimate ways to lodge a grievance about its quality. Using tactics that could prevent legitimate use of the network is foolish and dangerous.

Satellite company refuses to participate in cross-platform set-top

DirecTV Says, 'Leave Our Box Out of It' [Multichannel News]

 As the FCC explores a process to determine whether a technical solution can be developed to allow television set-tops to operate on any cable or satellite provider, America's cable companies have joined in that effort, pledging their support in developing a cross-platform set-top. But at least one satellite company has gone on the record to state their opposition to their set-tops being part of the solution.

In comments to the FCC filed on December 15th, DirecTV indicates their unwillingness to allow their set-tops to become part of a cross-platform solution for customers. DirecTV maintains that such a solution would not foster technical innovation.

Todd Spangler writes that if consumers could access any multi-channel video provider from a single box, it would likely prove to be a very popular technology. But, it's only fair if all companies participate in the process. If the FCC develops rules for this technology, they should apply equally and fairly to cable and satellite alike.

Federal government to award first broadband stimulus grants

First Broadband Stimulus Funds to Middle Mile Projects, Libraries and Rural Last-Mile [Broadband Breakfast]

 The White House has announced that today Vice President Joe Biden is awarding the first grants for the federal broadband stimulus program. The program is part of the economic stimulus, passed by Congress and signed by President Obama in February of this year, and includes $7.2 billion to bring broadband availability to Americans without access. Today's announcements represent $182 million in federal funding and $46 million in private dollars to construct middle-mile and last-mile broadband in 17 separate states.

Today's announcements fall into four categories aimed at increasing broadband availability and adoption. The majority of the the awards are designated to build middle-mile connectivity, to improve Internet connections to unserved communities. Other funds are designated for last mile connectivity, public computing centers, and sustainable adoption programs. 

Though today's announcements represent only around 3 percent of the total stimulus funds for broadband expansion, the government plans to roll out around $2 billion in funding over the next two months. As policy makers consider the numerous applications for federal funds to construct broadband, it's important that they weigh which projects will serve the largest numbers of communities that aren't currently served by broadband.

FBI makes arrest in prominent online file sharing case

FBI makes arrest in 'Wolverine' uploading case [CNET News]

Federal law enforcement officials have made an arrest in one of the more newsworthy content theft cases of the past year. Early this morning, the FBI arrested a man suspected of being the original uploader of the movie "X-Men Origins: Wolverine" to peer-to-peer networks on the Internet, where it was downloaded millions of times before its release in theaters earlier this year. Gilberto Sanchez of the Bronx, New York is the man that the FBI alleges obtained a studio copy of the film, digitized it and uploaded it to the file sharing site Megaupload.com under an online alias in April.

Neither the studio that made the film, 20th Century Fox, nor the FBI have released details about how the studio's film was leaked. However, Fox previously stated that the copy had a digital watermark that would allow law enforcement to track down the person that originally uploaded the film to the Internet. According to CNET, the illegally copied version was viewed 4.1 million times. At the time "Wolverine" hit file sharing networks, there was concern that the online copy of the film would suppress ticket sales.

Content theft is a serious offense, whether one is on the uploading or downloading end. Mr. Sanchez's arrest is likely to send the message to other potential uploaders that content theft isn't worth the risk.

GE announces smart-grid appliance production in Louisville

GE chooses Louisville for new appliance production [Associated Press]

 General Electric made an exciting announcement yesterday for the Louisville area, selecting its plant in Louisville's Appliance Park for production of new energy efficient, front-loading washers and dryers. The washer and dryer line will bring over 400 new jobs to the plant. Now, while the announcement is great news for the local economy in Louisville, I'm sure you're asking yourself why the CEO of Insight is blogging about washers and dryers.

Here's the reason. Each of these new appliances will come equipped with the ability to connect to a home's smart-grid electric meter. Using a broadband connection, the smart meter communicates with a household's electric utility to determine which parts of the day have the lowest per unit electric costs. Based on that information, users can schedule their washer and dryer to operate during the time when energy costs are low. Many of these smart-grid technologies allow users to periodically check their total energy usage online from their broadband connected smart-grid meter, using that information to adjust their appliances' energy usage.

Broadband connectivity is an important component to these new smart appliances, allowing the smart-meter to communicate with the appliance and the electric utility. During the 2009 Cable Show, Broadband Nation exhibited prototypes of smart-grid appliances, demonstrating their potential to reduce household energy usage which can result in a significant savings on consumers' utility bills. 

With GE's announcement, Louisville will now be a hub in the production of this ground-breaking technology. 

University of Kentucky versus Austin Peay only on Insight

Whether it’s John Wall driving for a dunk, Patrick Patterson hitting his now trademarked baseline jumper, or Coach Cal giving DeMarcus Cousins a “noogie” on the bench, here at Insight we know many of you just can’t get enough Kentucky basketball! That’s why we’ve made a commitment all season long to bring our customers as many games as possible.

We always work to be your home for the best sports programming and that’s why I’m pleased to announce that Insight will be carrying Saturday’s game against Austin Peay to all of our customers in Louisville, Lexington, Northern Kentucky, Bowling Green and the Evansville/Henderson area, regardless of which programming package they have.

As many of you probably already know, Saturday’s game is being carried on the Comcast/Charter Sports Southeast channel.  That’s one of the few channels we don’t regularly carry here at Insight.

But, being the sports fans we are, that didn’t stop us from figuring out another solution. So we worked out a deal to be a channel affiliate for the game so all of our customers throughout the Commonwealth, as well as most neighboring customers in southern Indiana, will be able to catch the Cats in their march to 2,000 wins.

Here’s hoping #1,999 comes this weekend...

Listed below are the channel assignments for Saturday’s game at 4:00 p.m.ET/3:00p.m. CT:

Louisville – channel 2
Lexington – channel 17
Northern Kentucky – channel 6
Bowling Green – channel 5
Evansville/Henderson – channel 2

U.S. House looking into live streaming copyright issues

House Committee Takes on Live-streaming Piracy [NewTeeVee]

Do the broadcasting and cable content producers who have rights to televise sporting events have some legal recourse when a fan in the stands uses a mobile device to stream video of the sporting event out live over the Internet? That's one of the questions the U.S. House Judiciary Committee is contemplating today in a hearing entitled "Piracy of Live Sports Broadcasting Over the Internet." With the advent of mobile phones that can record video while simultaneously uploading that video to a live streaming web site, each fan at a sporting event has the potential to create their own broadcast of the event. Companies that have paid millions for the right to broadcast the event - either via traditional television or online - are understandably concerned that these freelance broadcasts are undercutting their own.

The reason this has risen to the level of a congressional hearing is the question whether or not current copyright law protects the rights holders to these and other live events. Live streaming sites maintain that there is a technical fix that can solve the problem - working with content producers to use video fingerprinting to identify and remove infringing live content. The hearing is likely to focus on the effectiveness of the technical fix and whether copyright laws ought to be amended to counter this new technology.

Prices of HDTVs and Blu-ray players drop

As Prices Fall, Blu-ray Players Are Invited Home [New York Times]

 The New York Times had two stories on the dropping average price of high definition televisions and Blu-ray disc players, just in time for the holiday season. While HDTV's have been with us for years, electronics manufacturers continue to slash prices to keep sales moving during the economic downturn. Comparing prices to three years ago this time, average prices for 23 and 32 inch LCD HDTVs has dropped by around half.

Blu-ray disc players have dropped also, as manufacturers look for a price point that will lead to widespread adoption of the HD format. It's noteworthy that Blu-ray has a higher penetration rate today than the DVD format had at the same point in its history. That's being driven by a number Blu-ray players that are priced below $150, some around $100. That compares to prices that were double or more at the time the format was introduced. According to this article, Amazon reports that eight of the top ten players it sells are in the Blu-ray format. Many of those players also have the capability to connect to a user's broadband connection to provide streaming HD content in addition to a number of movies available in physical format.

Most users abandon re-buffering videos

4 Out of 5 Viewers Leave If a Stream Buffers Once [NewTeeVee]

 If you've been an online video aficionado for some time, you've likely experienced the frustration of having a video stream stop playing to re-buffer the content. If you're an Insight customer, you probably haven't had that experience in a long time, since our 10 Mbps and 20 Mbps broadband speeds are more than speedy enough to keep up with the largest video streams.

A recently released study by Tubemogul, an online video distribution and analytics company, indicates that 81 percent of viewers watching a video stream that stops to re-buffer content surf away from the page displaying that video. Buffering is the process of downloading the video content to a user's computer ahead of the current play position to allow streaming videos to play smoothly. Buffering is designed to only take place at the beginning of a video, but if the download rate doesn't keep up with the play rate of the video, then a stream must re-buffer the content.

Tubemogul used data from 192 million separate video streams to analyze how frequently videos re-buffer and how forgiving viewers are of the re-buffering. Overall, slightly less than seven percent of all streams experience re-buffering and viewers are somewhat more likely to stick with long form videos re-buffering than shorter online videos from sites like YouTube.

AT&T floats metered billing for iPhone

AT&T considers incentives to curb heavy data usage [CNET News]

 Apple iPhone users that are heavy data consumers may be getting some "incentives" to cut down their data use on AT&T's wireless network, according to comments made by the head of AT&T's wireless division recently. AT&T is the sole provider of iPhone service in the U.S., and at a recent investor conference, AT&T wireless head Ralph de la Vega told attendees that 3 percent of smartphone users are consuming 40 percent of the company's wireless bandwidth. Most of the smartphones on AT&T's network are iPhones.

According to CNET, de la Vega indicated that high-bandwidth applications were responsible for the disproportional usage of bandwidth, and that AT&T was developing a plan to cause users to curb their bandwidth use.

"What's driving usage on the network and driving these high usage situations are things like video, or audio that keeps playing around the clock," he said, according to the transcript provided by AT&T. "And so we've got to get to those customers and have them recognize that they need to change their pattern, or there will be other things that they are going to have to do to reduce their usage."

AT&T has suffered from questions about slowing data speeds on their wireless network due to the limited bandwidth, and this announcement appears to be an attempt to solve their limited bandwidth issues. According to CNET, de la Vega indicated that AT&T may bill data usage on a metered basis as an incentive for their iPhone users to consume less data.

Intel raising the issue of Firewire on HD set-tops

Firewire's future on DVRs is up for debate [EngadgetHD]

 Will future HD set-top boxes include a Firewire port? Not if Intel has anything to say about it, even if the trade association representing the Firewire standard objects. Since 2005, the FCC has required each HD set-top to include a Firewire port, but with fewer-than-expected computers and other devices using the Firewire standard, set-top manufacturers would like to be relieved of the requirement in favor of more widely adopted standards.

Technically called the IEEE 1394 standard, Firewire was at one time a fast, advanced video transfer technology. Intel wants to change set-tops from Firewire to Ethernet or another IP-based technology. In a filing with the FCC, Intel calls Firewire "a technological ‘bridge to nowhere,'" and contends that Ethernet is less costly than Firewire to include in set-tops. Other technology options for moving video content from a HD set-top could include multimedia over coax (MoCA) or WiGig. 

The issue now rests with the FCC to determine whether or not to retain the requirement for set-tops

Average American consumes 34 gigabytes of data each day

The American Diet: 34 Gigabytes a Day [Bits Blog]

Researchers at the University of California, San Diego have attempted to quantify the amount of data the average person receives each day from various sources including the Internet, television, movies, books and over the phone, arriving at a fairly astounding number. Their estimate - 34 gigabytes of data is received by the average American each 24 hour period. Of course, not all that data is digital information that is contained in computer bits. The scientists determined the equivalent measure for each medium in terms of bytes consumed, arriving at 34 gigabytes. According to Bits, that's around 100,000 words of content that the average American encounters in a day.

The lion's share of data is television viewing, which would account for nearly 45 percent of all the data traffic consumed. The web comes in second consisting of almost 27 percent of Americans' data appetite. Other categories include radio, printed media, computer games, movies and recorded music.

Since 1980, the researchers estimate that Americans' data consumption has risen 6 percent each year. Over that time span, the amount of daily data consumed has increased 350 percent. For a yardstick of how large that daily stream is, compared to the hard drive in my current computer, 34 gigabytes a day would fill the drive up in about 5 days.

WiGig Alliance releases draft standard

Coming Soon to Your HD Home Theater…7Gbps [GigaOM]

Can you imagine a wireless standard that would have the ability to send 7 gigabits per second around the home? The Wireless Gigabit Ethernet Alliance (WiGig) has released the draft of a standard that could theoretically achieve 7 Gbps in speed. Applications such as wireless transmission of high definition television immediately come to mind with speeds like that. 

WiGig's standard  would be backward-compatible with current wi-fi standards and would transmit further than current wireless HD protocols. It would operate on the 60 GHz spectrum to achieve these speeds and transmission distances. The alliance backing WiGig includes prominent chipmakers like Intel, who are pushing for its widespread adoption by consumer electronics manufacturers.

If adopted, WiGig would give home networks a tremendous speed boost, allowing them to transmit full 1080p high def video around the home. No longer would there be a need to wire an entire home for multiple HD televisions. Just hooking up a network adapted linked to a WiGig router has the potential to become a standard for upcoming devices.

Service tests the strength of your wireless password

New Cloud-based Service Steals Wi-Fi Passwords [PC World]

For $34 security conscious users have an option to test the strength of their wireless network password. Called WPA Cracker, the online service offers to break into a user's wi-fi WPA, pre-shared key protected network  for a fee. The service compares a dictionary of 135 million common words and phrases to the network's password to determine whether it would be crackable by a determined hacker.

Normally, it would take a very long time for a powerful computer to crack a WPA password in this fashion. However, WPA Cracker uses a cloud-based approach, harnessing the power of a 400 node network to guess 300 passwords each second. WPA Cracker claims that it can check all 135 million dictionary entries against a password in 20 minutes. Users concerned about their wireless password's strength pay to have the service interface with their network. After WPA Cracker runs its test, the user receives an email outlining the results.

Should a hacker attempt to perform a similar intrusion and succeed in guessing a wireless password, all traffic on the network would be visible to the hacker. Users interested in enhancing their password strength should check this password primer. And if you're interested in performing a security test, the WPA Cracker is available here.

Americans still watch 99 percent of video on television

Nielsen Three Screen Report: 99 percent of video still viewed on a TV [EngadgetHD]

Nielsen's latest Three Screen Report, which measures video viewing on televisions, online and via mobile devices, has been released for the third quarter of this year. While the report shows substantial growth for online viewing - up 34.9 percent over last year - 99 percent of all video viewing still occurs via the television screen.

On average, Americans watched 31 hours and 19 minutes of traditional television each week during the third quarter of 2009. Of that television viewing, Americans watched an average of a half-hour of recorded video from their DVR each week. DVR usage is up 21.1 percent over the same quarter last year. Compare that to only 22 minutes of online video viewing on the Internet and just three minutes spent watching mobile video. 

Based on the demographic numbers released by Nielsen, it appears that younger Americans are marginally heaver consumers of online and mobile video than their older counterparts. Older Americans watch substantially more television - with adults between 55-64 watching nearly 40 hours of television per week compared to adults 25-34 watching less than 30 hours each week.

Boxee Box falls short on claims as cable replacement

The Boxee Box: It Ain't TV [Bit Rate - Multichannel News]

If you want YouTube videos on your high-def television, the developers at Boxee want to talk to you about their new tv peripheral - the Boxee Box. As readers recall, Boxee is an open source software product that is essentially a digital media guide that can be installed on a computer connected to a television. Boxee's software plays media that isn't protected by digital rights management and paid subscription media, like streaming Netflix movies.

In an attempt to bring Boxee to a wider audience, the company has worked with D-Link to produce a plug-and-play peripheral with the Boxee software already installed. Connect the Boxee Box to your television and your broadband, and you're ready to stream video. But, while Boxee is promoting the Box as a way to get free video without the need to subscribe to cable television, Todd Spangler has debunked those claims as marketing puffery in his post on the Box. Sure, you watch as many YouTube videos as you want via the Boxee Box, but to get the level of entertainment that most users want, you're going to need to pay for a subscription to a streaming service like Netflix. 

It's an interesting concept, but with Hulu's video content blocked from Boxee users, there's very little quality content available for free for the Boxee Box. The Box has a planned retail release in the second quarter of next year.

SEC Championship increases online and traditional viewership

‘Bama vs. Florida Online Viewership Up 132% Over Last Year [NewTeeVee]

Having grown up in Miami, I was pretty disappointed in the outcome of last Saturday's big game, but the SEC Football Championship is providing additional evidence that online video streams are not necessarily subtractive from traditional television watching. Having college football's top two teams squaring off for a spot in the national championship game is likely to attract a large audience, no matter the platform, however CBS managed to grow their online viewership of the big game 132 percent over last year's game while still increasing traditional viewing by 13 percent.

CBS reports that CBSSports.com had 91,401 unique viewers watching the game online on Saturday. Those viewers watched a combined 144,236 hours of game footage. Not only did viewership increase, but those viewers watched more of the game online. CBS recorded a 188 percent increase in the hours of video watched online. Via traditional television viewing, the game attracted a 11.8/24 overnight rating.

Report indicates that broadband adoption rates may be higher than previously throught

Report Using Census Block Data Finds Broadband Adoption Rate of 72.9 Percent [Broadband Census]

Broadband adoption rates might be as much as ten points higher than previously thought according to a new report from Broadband Census that uses geographical data to sort areas that don't currently have access to broadband from adoption counts. The report indicates that 72.9 percent of Americans with access to broadband are subscribers.

The report's methodology relies upon three sources of data - the FCC's Form 477 report, which indicates the number of broadband subscribers in each state, Census bureau population counts, and Gadberry Group's broadband service availability data. Broadband Census used the broadband availability data to determine the number census blocks that did not have access to broadband. Those census blocks without broadband access that contained households were eliminated from the adoption ratio - the number of households with broadband service divided by total households with access to broadband. Previous studies of broadband adoption rates have not precisely measured the number of households that don't currently have broadband access, which deflates the adoption rate.

This post on Broadband Census illustrates the methodology using the state of Arizona as a model, with a map that indicates areas of the state that are served by broadband, those that aren't served by broadband with households, and unpopulated areas that aren't served by broadband. It's a very interesting report that likely to challenge some of the conventional thinking about broadband adoption in this country.